Harrison vs. Pavel (2001)
James Harrison's first professional match was at the 2001 Australian Open. Andrei Pavel showed to be quite strong in the match taking the first two sets 6-0, 6-0 he did lead 5-0 (40-0) in the third set but Harrison produced the greatest comeback ever and took the third set 7-6, 7-1 in the tie break. Harrison then took the fourth set 6-0 before snatching the final set 6-1. He completed what was voted the greatest comeback of all time. 1st Set Throughout the first set Andrei Pavel showed his brilliance and took a 4-0 lead in just 10 minutes after 12 minutes he had taken the first set 6-0 with out any real effort. It looked like Andrei Pavel was keeping hold of his energy to use in the later sets to defeat the young Brit. It certainly looked like the match would be easy for the Romanian. 2nd Set Yet again the Romanian took the set without breaking a sweat and in 14 minutes and 6-0 yet again. This match started to look bleak for the young Englishman. It was getting more and more likely that this match would end in less than an hour Pavel was now 2-0 up in sets and it had taken only 26 minutes to do so. 3rd Set In just 9 minutes Andrei Pavel took a 5-0 lead and was 40-0 up. Harrison then managed to pull it back to deuce and took his first game of the match and Pavel now lead 5-1. Harrison then took 5 minutes to pull it back to 5-3 Pavel then looked like he would take the game. He then slipped up and Harrison made it 5-4. Harrison then managed to go 6-5 up in just 2 minutes this was before Pavel made it 6-6 and took it to a tie break. Pavel went 1-0 up in the tie break and impressed taking the point but he just collapsed and Harrison took the tie break 7-1 and the set 7-6. Order of Games *Harrison 0-1 Pavel *Harrison 0-2 Pavel *Harrison 0-3 Pavel *Harrison 0-4 Pavel *Harrison 0-5 Pavel *Harrison 1-5 Pavel *Harrison 2-5 Pavel *Harrison 3-5 Pavel *Harrison 4-5 Pavel *Harrison 5-5 Pavel *Harrison 6-5 Pavel *Harrison 6-6 Pavel *Harrison 7-6 Pavel (Harrison 7-1 Pavel; Tie Break) 4th Set Harrison showed why he won the junior Grand Slam in 2000 by taking the 4th set 6-0 and his incredible turn around continued this started to shock not only his Romanian opponent but the 500 strong crowd. He showed little in effort by taking this set in 22 minutes he went in to the final set showing that he would do well. 5th Set Andrei Pavel took an early lead 1-0 in the set but yet again Harrison showed that he was a good player and could impress in the future and eventually took the set 6-1 to progress to the next round of the 2001 Australian Open. Rest of the Tournament Harrison was knocked out in the Quarter-Finals by eventual Champion Andre Agassi 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, 3-6, 6-8. This would the the first and only time Harrison failed to make the Semi-Finals of a Grand Slam Tournament.